Artist Biography
Andrea McIlhatton Cardow completed an undergrad in the arts, focusing on Art History and Languages, graduating in 1990 with an MA from the University of Glasgow. After obtaining a post-graduate teaching diploma, she went on to obtain a Masters at her alma mater, where she now teaches part-time in the College of Social Sciences, while working full time in the education department of North Lanarkshire Council. Throughout this time, her interest in art was coupled with completion of various training courses covering art teaching, life drawing, sculpture and printmaking.
Her practice is rooted in cinema, literature, and the visual arts, drawing from these disciplines to explore the human journey and the enduring struggle of what it means to live. The work reflects on lived experience as something both intimate and collective—shaped by memory, desire, conflict, and resilience.
At its core, it engages with global issues of feminism and human rights, examining how power, voice, and visibility are negotiated across personal and political landscapes. It explores how acts of resistance, care, and self-determination emerge within these spaces. Rather than offering fixed conclusions, the work creates moments of pause—inviting reflection on inequality, agency, and shared responsibility.
Questions of identity run throughout the work how it is constructed, performed, represented, and remembered. It explores how identity leaves an imprint—on bodies, on histories, and on the cultural record—often in ways that are subtle, fragmented, or unresolved. By weaving together cinematic language, literary influence, and artistic freedom, the work seeks to honour complexity and to open spaces for empathy, dialogue, and critical thought.
Andrea M Cardow
Born in 1969 in Lanarkshire, Scotland
Resides and works in Glasgow, Scotland
Education
2014: MEd (Masters’ Degree), University of Glasgow
1990: Master of Arts (Undergrad.), University of Glasgow
Training
2021: Etching (Beginner / Refresher) Course, Glasgow Print Studio, Tutor: Ian McNicol, Glasgow, Scotland
2018: Bookbinding and Screenprinting Course, Glasgow Print Studio, Tutor: James Harrison, Glasgow, Scotland
2014: Screenprinting Intermediate Course, Tutor: Roz Lawless, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland
2014: Screenprinting (Beginner / Refresher) Course, Tutor: Roz Lawless, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland
2012 - 2014: Sculpture, Glasgow School of Art, Tutor: Catherine Whippey, Glasgow, Scotland
2010 – 2012: Life Drawing, Glasgow School of Art, Tutor: Neil MacDonald, Glasgow, Scotland
2009: Teaching Art for Teachers, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland
2008 - 2009: Life Drawing, Glasgow School of Art, Tutor: Neil MacDonald, Glasgow, Scotland
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Paper Dolls, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland
2022 Still, Broadcast Bar, Glasgow, Scotland
2025 Land, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland
Group Exhibitions
2022 The Love of Print, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland
2018 Glasgow Splash, Café Bella Juanita, Palma, Mallorca
Residencies
2023 WASPS Studios, The Admiral’s House, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Collections
2022 Archive of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and of Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland